Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Stupid Correlations

Correlation doesn't mean causation, but most people see correlations as causative when they fit their pet theories anyway. If you need a better rejoinder to someone's correlation than '93.7% of statistics are made up on the spot', there's a website for this! correlated.org contains gems like:

15 percent of people who dislike mayonnaise are good dancers, compared with 29 percent of people in general.

75 percent of people who can't type without looking at the keyboard prefer thin-crust pizza to deep-dish, compared with 59 percent of people in general.

61 percent of people who floss regularly prefer credit cards to debit cards, compared with 45 percent of people in general.

3 comments:

360 jurors of 500 condemned Socrates to death. Plato records that 76% said Socrates was innocent, 12% that he should have been fined instead of executed, 12% was confused about which Socrates they have just tried (It was a common Athenian name). Galton (the father of statistics) calculated that the average IQ of Athenian citizens was 140.

I had a great laugh with this site. The correlation was between people who dislike mayonnaise and are bad dancers. I hate mayonnaise and I an a horrible dancers so it was perfect. It was good to see that you returned to your serious ways. I really enjoy reading your stuff.